Which car charger to buy?

[tmushy]

i too have been trying to find a good charger. it seems these aftermarket ones put out 500ma. the droid x oem wall charger is 850ma.

 

[kdkinc]

I'm using a Dual USB charger I bought at walmart.
Its rated to output "1" amp per USB side.
The Manufacture is Griffin And the cost was about $13.00.

As a side not the car charger I was using had "RF" interference on my radio at times while using my DX and Slacker radio via 3.5 connector wire.
The Griffin is NOT so bad still a bit of "RF"
:icon_eek::icon_eek:

 

[reddem0n]

It depends what you want the car charger to do. If you want to run GPS/Nav, BT, and stream Pandora, or the like while driving, read this thread.

Hi there, are you saying the one Verizon provides will no be able to use the max features with your phone. If I use it it will most likely only be just Pandora & my GPS?

 

[cygnusloop]

It depends what you want the car charger to do. If you want to run GPS/Nav, BT, and stream Pandora, or the like while driving, read this thread.

Hi there, are you saying the one Verizon provides will no be able to use the max features with your phone. If I use it it will most likely only be just Pandora & my GPS?

Verizon sells a variety of car chargers. No car charger comes with the X. It seems that in some cases a charger that puts out 1A or more is required to keep up with the battery drain when all the radios are on. But there are also other variables, in particular, heat. In some cases, it seems, that once the battery get to a certain temperature, charging shuts off no matter what the charger current. AFIK, it has yet to be determined how much the X will draw given ideal circumstances.

Personally, (I use the PowerJolt2 2Amp charger with a 28/24 AWG usb cable from monoprice) I have been able to run the phone at max and have the phones charge increase. However, I have had one instance (on a very hot day, with the sun beating on the phone -my bad- that the charging shut off and the charge began to drain. Once the phone cooled down a bit, all was well.

 

[dswartze]

Personally, (I use the PowerJolt2 2Amp charger with a 28/24 AWG usb cable from monoprice) I have been able to run the phone at max and have the phones charge increase. However, I have had one instance (on a very hot day, with the sun beating on the phone -my bad- that the charging shut off and the charge began to drain. Once the phone cooled down a bit, all was well.

I am using the same setup .... and notice the same issue with heat. Once the battery temp hits around 105 F it stops charging. It is a pain since the car dock sits in the window! On long trips I actually keep my DX in the center console of my car and not the dock. A pain!

Also, anyone notice just how hot your DX gets when using Navigator?

 

[droidphreak]

Also, anyone notice just how hot your DX gets when using Navigator?

You should try holding it while you use the nav... very very warm to hold even though the case. Hence my pruchasing the car dock/car charger combo off of the Vz website. Besides holding a hot phone while driving is not the safest lol.

 

[Philba]

My experience using a generic car charger (1A) is that the heat problem is not due to the charger but the fact that my DX car dock is on the dashboard and thus gets full sun. Since the mount and the DX are black, they absorb heat. Proof of this came when I left my DX in the car dock and powered it down but unplugged the power cable. The car was outside the garage in full sun. Within around 30 minutes, it got almost as hot as when it was plugged in. So, I tried an experiment where I took the car dock off the dashboard, set it on the console and made sure it was powered up. It got warm but not hot. My thesis is that the sun adds enough heat to cause the problems people have been seeing. Since I live in "sunny" Seattle, it's not a general problem for me but you southerners probably have cause for concern. I suppose if I'd been scientific, I would have measured the temp.

By the way, the monoprice USB car charger linked to in the above comment specifically says it does not work with various smart phones including the Droid. I'm not sure why that is because it's spec'd to deliver 1A which is more than the VZW charger referenced above. Anybody know what gives on that? I don't think monoprice is trying to sell something else because, well, they aren't selling something else! Maybe they know the spec is a lie...

 

[hbniner]

When I picked up my Droid X from the Verizon store a few days ago, they had a dual usb port that plugs into your cigarette lighter. You're able to plug in 2 micro usb cables. It works perfectly fine.